me, god, us, them and a good book
Published 1 year, 8 months ago in My life.“If you were designing an organism to look after life in our lonely cosmos, to monitor where it is going and keep a record of where it has been, you wouldn’t choose human beings for the job.’’
Bill Bryson, A Short history of Nearly Everything.
A bit about the book
A Short History of Nearly Everything is a fascinating tour of the history of scientific discovery with wonderful insights into the many great and downright weird minds that have shaped our understanding of the physical world.
It also provides a lucid précis of more-or-less current scientific thought on everything from the formation of the universe, to the atom, to the origins and evolution of life.
A bit about me
I was born a non-practicing Catholic, was educated at Catholic schools and shifted progressively from non-practicing to non-believing. I have acquired several degrees, both in the sciences and the arts, and began a Batchelor of Theology.
A bit about me and God
A brief study of church history reveals a great many great minds that contributed great things to human society, culture and spirituality. It is an unfortunate truth however that for hundreds of years the Church stifled scientific endeavor and free thought and insisted on a rigid and absurd doctrine.
Religion has never offered me solace or comfort. It has never provided direction, inspiration, guidance or hope. It has provided me with few insights. It frankly bores me. But I have never fully discounted the possible existence of God. I still haven’t.
a bit about the book and me and us
What I have rejected, more firmly than ever after reading Bryson’s book, is the notion that humans hold a special place in the great creation, regardless of how it all came to be.
A long bit about the book and us and them
We humans have occupied this planet for a very short time.
Earth is about 4.5 billion years old. Life got its start about 3.8 billion years ago, a mere 50 million years or so after the planet’s surface is presumed to have cooled – quick enough to suggest there was some help involved. Just what or who helped I don’t know or much care. Francis Crick – the most famous of those who unraveled the structure of DNA – once suggested, in all seriousness, that the Earth was deliberately seeded by aliens. Apparently being smart, and a Nobel laureate to boot, is no guard against being a nut.
Anyway, life started small - as very simple, single-celled organisms (a lot like blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria ) - whose greatest trick was to make more of themselves.
Life didn’t do a lot for the next 3 billion years then, between 800 and 500 million years ago it did a whole bunch of stuff. All the basic body shapes and life-plans we see today were tried out back then, during the Cambrian explosion.
A bit about us
We didn’t come on the scene until a very recent 150,000 years ago and never really hit our straps until about 10,000 years ago. 10,000 years in the 4,500,000,000 year history of the planet aint a lot, but it’s been interesting.
The background rate of extinction throughout biological history is estimated at about one species every four years. A 1995 UN report put a conservative estimate of “known’’ extinctions in the past 400 years at about 1200 plants and animals. Three a year or 12 times the background rate. Others estimate the rate of extinctions at 120,000 times that rate but they could be crazy.
People plunder the planet. The coal, oil and gas we use to power our cities and our cars was laid down between 360 and 286 million years ago, during the carboniferous period. The carbon and hydrogen in fossil fuels was gathered together in ancient plants through the power of sunlight. About 100-tonnes of ancient plant life makes four-litres of petrol. Every year humans burn the equivalent of 420 years of ancient sunlight.
A bit about us and me and God
I don’t mean to beat up on humans – I am one and I quite like us. We’ve got spunk. It’s just that we don’t make very good candidates for God’s instrument. As caretakers we suck.
A bit about them
If this planet belongs to anyone or anything, it is bacteria – the simplest form of life with no obvious ambition but to continue being. Bacteria have been here since the beginning of life, they continue to thrive – including in the most hostile environments imaginable – and, unlike us, they will be here when the sun explodes. Bacteria are about as meek as you can get. But they’re tough. And they will inherit the Earth.
7 Responses to “me, god, us, them and a good book”
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Great post fossil…
Since you say your were born into a catholic family and educated in a catholic system, It shows the struggle to free yourself of those ideas , and makes me wonder if you were educated and raised in a NON religious system , would you have EVER looked into the religious side of things?
This is one of the big things for the future , the raising of children in religious surroundings restricts them , in a way from using their reason and logic to the fullest , some people are able to get past the rhetoric , like yourself, many arent..
good post….
Firstly, great post fossil. Pondering the Big Stuff. And ackbar, I love your question. Was it school or home or genes or The Source or something else that you attribute your awareness of and interest in God?
If there is a God, do you think he controls things - pulls the strings, so to speak?
Another thing: is boredom bad?
Hey folks, glad you liked it.
You know Ack I’m not sure that I’ve struggled to free myself of those ideas - though I certainly spent quite a bit of time rebelling against them - I think I did my best to explore and appreciate them. I just found them wanting.
If I hadn’t been born into the Catholic tradition I doubt I would have shown much interest in Catholicism - the incense, the hymns and the frocks never did anything for me. But I’m pretty sure I would have checked out Christianity in some form.
I can’t imagine living in such a Christian-dominated society and not opening the Bible, which has some pretty interesting tales to tell once you get past all the begats and oh-so-solemn tone.
And Supergirl, I attribute my interest to the fact that I’m interested in the Big Stuff. You can’t ignore religion if you seek meaning in your life. We all search for, and mostly find I think, some form of spirituality. In the words of the good dead Beatle - What ever gets you through the night, it’s alright.
I love that bit in The Matrix where our boy Hugo (don’t call me Nigerian) Weaving says that he has finally worked it out:
“I’d like to share a revelation that I’ve had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you’re not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You’re a plague and we are the cure.”
Same deal with the cylons. Maybe we don’t deserve to survive ? Roll on bacteria.
Don’t deserve to survive? Harsh.
The Matrix is a great film enormous philisophical implications. I may post on it at some stage. I liked the sequels too but more for their fantasy aspects than a meaningful contribution to what we’re all doing here.
Thanks for the post segue.
Have to agree very interesting post.
We are the crappiest of caretakers and we’ve got such an over inflated view on our value.
I have not yet discounted the existence of God or Gods, (though religon is an evil we could well do without). Bacteria is far more deserving of this planet than we are.
All Catholics are born non-practicing that’s why they baptize them ASAP, it still takes a few years to learn how to play bingo (sorry). I don’t see how “religion” can ever offer anyone solace or comfort in fact I think it’s a hindrance to it. Direction, inspiration, guidance or hope Hmmmmm maybe but you’ll always have the influences of the system, the traditions and the religious teachers to boot. Insights into how to manipulate and control, yes. By the way I love the incense and the hymns. Its always a battle, our parents teachers etc. try to instill what they believe is best or right, what Ackbar says is true, about being educated in the catholic system but the opposite is also true. We would have to have a system that teachers all points of view without bias, then you could truly make up your own mind , trouble is there’d be no time left for all the other subjects. I believe in a personal God Who has made us in His own image, which means He must be like us to some degree, so I look upon Him as a friend and friends can offer solace and comfort.
Wonder woman, “does He controls things - pulls the strings“, I think He created the laws that control things and they work without strings. I agree we’re not good caretakers but we could and should be, what’s it ganna take for us to wake up.